Eat Your Vegetables, Please
by Dragoness243
Summary: Takes place before WW. Link and Aryll's grandmother is having a hard time getting Aryll to eat her vegetables. What happens when she asks Link to try?


**Another one-shot. **

**I don't own Zelda.**

**Enjoy.**

………**.**

…

"Link? Where are you, dear?"

It was around the hour of dinner--quite far past, actually--and Link's elderly grandmother was searching for her young grandson. She had last seen the eleven year old boy not but an hour ago when he'd scurried away from the table, dregs from his macaroni still on his face. It mattered not what they had eaten nor the weather, the boy would always run off as soon as he had finished eating.

She looked under and in his bed, out through the window at the porch, and up on the small platform that served as the second level to their small cabin-like house. She couldn't find him anywhere.

"You should look up at the cape, Grandma," five year old Aryll squeaked from her seat at the table.

"Perhaps I should," she replied. "You be good while I look for your brother, and please finish your supper." With those words, she put on her jacket and went outside to find Link.

Aryll looked disdainfully at her plate and continued to roll the icky peas around with her fork. "Yucky," she scowled.

……

Meanwhile, Link sat on a large granite boulder beneath a lone palm tree up on the cape of Outset Island. He stared out into he ocean, his mind drifting off once again to the seductive thoughts of adventure. He envisioned himself (although a wee bit older) at the prow of a mighty ship, his blond locks pushed back from his face by the strong sea breeze.

But when he opened his eyes, he was disappointed yet again upon seeing the sandy beach below him. "Someday, though, I _will_ go on an adventure," he said, confidence ringing in his boyish voice. "I'm gonna find lots of treasure and then everyone will be proud of me, just like dad."

As the boy's thoughts were seized yet again by flights of fancy, he heard his grandmother calling his name.

"Link, are you up here?" she shouted.

Link jumped off the rock. "Yeah, Grandma, I'm here," he yelled back, running off down the path until he met up with her. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing my dear," she replied. "I need you to come back to the house for a little bit."

………

Upon their arrival, they both saw that Aryll was still sitting in her chair.

"Hi, Big Brother!" she giggled.

"Hiya, 'Ryll," he said back with a smile.

The two children's grandmother pulled the elder sibling aside. "Link, can you try and get your sister to eat her peas? I don't want her growing into a finicky eater," she whispered.

Link nodded. "I can try, Grandma."

And so he walked back toward the table and crouched beside his sister. "How're ya doing, sis?"

Aryll giggled again. "I'm okay, Big Brother," she said, then frowned. "But I don't like these peas. Will you eat them for me?"

Looking at the little girl's puppy dog eyes, he wanted to consent, but shook his head instead. "I can't eat them," he answered.

"How come?"

"Well…" he trailed off, looking for some reason that would persuade her to eat the offending vegetables. "Well, 'Ryll, they're yours. It wouldn't be fair to you, since I already ate mine."

Aryll's smile faded. "Oh," she said. "But I don't like them, so you can have them. It's okay, I'm giving them to you."

Suddenly, Link got an idea. "Okay, I'll have some," he said, standing. "Hey, Grandma, do we have any peas left?"

"Yes, we do, I believe," the grandmother replied.

"Can I have some more?"

"I…I don't see why not."

"Thanks!" The boy dashed to the counter and got a plate, a fork, and the bowl of peas. He carried them to the table and began pouring a small hill of the round vegetables onto the plate. "There, Aryll, now it's fair." Still looking at his sister, Link began to eat the peas.

"I meant that you could have some of mine!" she exclaimed, her eyes tearing up. "Please, Big Brother?"

Link closed his eyes with delight. "Uh uh," he said. "_You _gotta eat 'em." He paused. "Hey, sis, did I ever tell you that I used to not like peas either?"

"Nope."

"Well, it's true. Now they're my favourite!"

"Really?" Aryll asked, looking doubtfully at her plate. "How come?"

"Well," Link began, putting the last of his peas into his mouth, chewing, and then swallowing. "I think they're kinda like the bait that we feed the seagulls. I know that sounds weird, but I thought, 'hey, if the seagulls like it, then why don't I? Maybe if I eat it, then I'll get strong like them.'"

"But Link, the seagulls aren't strong, they're only tiny!" Aryll protested.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean anything. They have to be strong, else they couldn't fly."

"So if I wanna be strong…" the girl said thoughtfully, and then she put the rest of the peas in her mouth and then ate them.

"You wanna be strong like your friends the gulls?" Link asked.

Aryll got out of her chair and then walked to her brother. She put her little arms around him in a hug, and then murmured, "No, I wanna be strong like my Big Brother."

…….

**There you have it.**

**If you'd like to, leave comments/questions/and/or concerns.**

**Later on,**

**D243**


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